Railway-joint and nut-lock



(No Model.)

' W. M. JENKINS.

RAILWAY JOINT AND NUT LOOK.

No. 298,473. Patented May 13,1884.

1" 11' O O \L/ 6' 6" M INVENTOR ATTORNEYS;

Uivrrnn TATES arnrvr Prion.

\VILLIAM M. JENKINS, OF DEFIANCE, IOWA.

RAILWAY-JOINT AND NUT-LOCK.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 298,473,:1atd May 13, 1884. v

Application filed February 23, 1884. (N model.)

To all 2071,0172, it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM M. J ENKINS, of Defiance, in the county of Shelby and State of Iowa, have invented a new and Improved Railway-Joint and Nut-Lock, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The object of this invention is to provide practical means forlocking the nuts upon the bolts used at the joints of railroad-rails, and means which at the same time will act to hold the fish-plates against the webs of the rails with a yielding pressure, thus making a flexible joint, and one which will take up its own slack consequent upon wear, and one in which the nuts cannot possibly turn of their own accord upon the bolts.

The invention consists in the construction and arrangement of parts, as will be hereinafter described and claimed.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a railroad-joint, showing one-half of the fish-plate having my invention applied thereto. Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the claspplate. Fig. 3 illustrates the method of cutting the blanks for making the clasp-plates. Fig. 4 shows a modified form of key for locking the nuts upon the joint-bolts, and Fig. 5 is an end view of the clasp-plate.

The rails A, fish-plates B, j oint-bolts O, and nuts D may be of the ordinary or of any approved construction. r

E represents the clasp-plate,'and F represents the bar or key for locking the nuts 1) upon the bolts 0.

The clasp-plate E'is formed with the apertures E, for adapting the plate to be placed upon the bolts 0, against the outer surface of the fish-plate B, and'is formed also with the central clasp plateor spring, E which elasps and holds in place the key or bar F; and at the openings E the plate E is slotted, as shown at a, to form the lips I), which are sprung outward, as shown in Fig. 5, to form spring lips, against which the nuts D are screwed when they are turned home upon the bolts 0.

In forming the clasp-plates E the blanks G are first cut from a plate in the form shown in Fig. 3, the portion 9 of each blank being taken from the body of the next succeeding blank. The blanks G having been cut, the portion 9 will be bent first outward, as shown at c, then upward parallel or nearly parallel with the-outer surface of the blank, leaving a space to receive the bar or key F, and then the upper edge of the portion 9 will be bent to form the rib d, which is adapted to reach over the upper edge of the key or bar F, for clasping and holding the bar securely in place between the nuts D.

The openings E and slots a will be punched or cut at the same time the blank is cut from the plate.

The bar or key F may be a plain block or bar of hard wood or iron of suitable length to fit between the nuts D D, with its end coming fairly against square faces of the nuts, as shown in Fig. 1, so that the nuts cannot turn upon the bolts 0 while the bar remains in place; or the key may be in the form of a double wrench, as shown in Fig. 4, the heads f f of the key being adapted to fit upon the nuts D, for holding the nuts from turning, the central clasp, E being arranged to hold it from outward movement off from the nuts, as will be readily understood from the draw ings.

Vhen the nuts D are turned upon the bolts G, they will press against the spring-lips 1) and force them down even with the face of the main body of the clasp-plate E, of which they are a part, thus causing them to exert a constant spring-pressure against the nuts D, which will tend to make the joint fiexibleto a certain extent, thus avoiding much unneeessary wear; and as the strain on the joint by the cars passing over it will tend to loosen the joint, even if the nuts D are prevented from turning, the spring-lips b will act to take up the slack, and thus dispense with the necessity of tightening the nuts.

By forming the blanks as illustrated and described it will be seen that much material is saved, and that the blanks are more agreeand having the spring-lips b, formed about the able to handle in consequence of the lighter openings E, substantially as and for the pur- Weight. poses set forth.

Having thus described my invention, I claim WILLIAM M. JENKINS. 5 as new and desire to secure-by Letters Patent- WVitnesses:

' The clasp-plate E, formed. with the open- J. P. BEOHTOL,

ings E and the central clasping-tongue, E 0. M. ROBINs. 

